“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.” Proverbs 16:9
I’m reading through “The Power of a Praying Wife” by Stormie Omartian with a friend. When I was reading today, this sentence struck me:
“History tends to repeat itself without the intervention of God.”
Wow!
Stop!
Think about that!
Think about your past. What are things that keep repeating themselves in your life? As you answer that question, you probably have just been given a clue to the areas of your life where you are not letting God intervene. Mind blowing!
I always have defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I think I may just change that definition a bit for my life. Insanity in my life is doing the same things over and over again and not letting God into the mix.
When I was single, my relationships didn’t start to change until I started letting God into them. When I started to apply His principles I started having healthy relationships. Because I consult Him now, I maintain healthy relationships.
When I was in debt, nothing changed until I decided to let God into my finances. I wrote my first tithe check when I was on unemployment with over $40,000 in credit card debt, student loan debt and a car loan. Hard to make the minimum payments on unemployment. I was receiving $250 a week and I started writing that $25 check. It was actually easier because it wasn’t a large amount at that time.
God honored that obedience. Five months later I found a job that was more than double what I had been making previously. Ironically, it became much harder to write the tithe check because the amount was much larger. Yet I did. That was almost 20 years ago and one thing I learned, God honors the tithe, always.
I didn’t become debt free immediately. It took years. During that time I struggled with the thought, “God, you have all the money in the world, why don’t you just cut me a check so I can be done with this?” I asked myself that quite a bit. It took me awhile to realize the answer.
God wouldn’t of been doing me any favors if He’d paid off my debt because I wouldn’t of learned the lesson. I wouldn’t of learned self-control. I wouldn’t of learned how to budget. I wouldn’t of learned the root cause of my overspending, which had a lot to do with insecurity. I wouldn’t of learned any of that if God had wiped out my debt. Odds are, history would of tended to repeat itself if God hand’t intervened.
Now I live debt free. When I married my husband, I was debt free. On our honeymoon we created our first budget. We live within our means because the Lord intervened in my finances all those years ago. One quarrel my husband and I don’t have is about money. Who knew, that in teaching me how to handle money the Lord was actually helping my future marriage?
Thank God the Lord intervened.
- Where do you need God to intervene in your life? The answer to the question, “What history keeps repeating itself in your life?” is probably a good place to start.
